Meaning & readings
tailor, judge, decision, cut out (pattern)
On’yomi サイ
Kun’yomi た.つ、さば.く
Origin
The character 裁 combines the components for cloth or clothing (衣) with a component that represents cutting or dividing (𢦏). The image captures the idea of cutting fabric into pieces, which is what a tailor does. Because judging or making decisions also involves dividing things into categories—deciding what is right and what is wrong—the character came to mean both tailoring and judging. The visual logic of cutting connects these seemingly different meanings through a common act of separation.
Components
- 𢦏
- 衣
- 𢦏
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 145
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #297 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+088C1